Rose Marie, the actress and performer who famously worked 90 years in show business and claimed the title of “The longest career in showbiz history” has died at 94.
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A tweet from Rose Marie’s official Twitter confirmed the sad news.
It is with broken hearts that we share the terribly sad news that our beloved Rose Marie passed away this afternoon. https://t.co/boHpy71Fjx pic.twitter.com/qv9w8pNuOz
— Rose Marie-Official (@RoseMarie4Real) December 29, 2017
Marie is perhaps most famous for playing Sally Rogers on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and occupying the top center square on “Hollywood Squares,” but her decades-long career contained everything from radio spots and touring with a vaudeville group to singing for presidents Coolidge, Hoover and Roosevelt and a brief career in film.
Her career started at age three in Atlantic City under the name “Baby Rose Marie.” After winning a contest, she got her start there and became a radio personality, eventually moving to NBC and recording albums under the Mercury label. She’d move from music to film, starring in some of the first “talkies” like “Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder” in 1929.
At age 17, she relaunched her career after taking a break to finish schooling, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Her career would then turn through clubs and theaters as a singer and vaudeville performer, particularly alongside Rosemary Clooney, Helen O’Connell and Margaret Whiting in their troupe “4 Girls 4.”
That performing talent led her to Broadway and then to Hollywood with late husband Bobby Guy, a trumpeter on NBC’s Tonight Show. She took her signature role on the Dick Van Dyke show in 1961, where she starred for five years before joining the Doris Day Show and, eventually, Hollywood Squares.
She was recognized with a star on the Walk of Fame in 2001.
In November, Marie marked 90 years in show business. A film about her life and career, “Wait for Your Laugh,” was released to coincide with her 90th year.
They told me they've just added another show w/Dick Cavett to opening day in NYC because tickets are moving so fast https://t.co/WmbqiOqpVo pic.twitter.com/6D4IUMMSgW
— Rose Marie-Official (@RoseMarie4Real) October 25, 2017